Elder Payton MacLay: "Met the Prophet NBD"

Brazil flag

'll start this week's email with a quote from our loving prophet, President Russell M. Nelson:

"Good morning Elder MacLay." -Nelson (August 30, 2019)

It's a pretty profound quote if you ask me.

This week President Nelson came to Brasilia and talked exclusively with my mission (around 150-200 people). It was AMAZING. He gave an amazing and inspired talk to us. We got to shake his hand. When I went up to him, I had the biggest smile on my face. He said good morning to me and looked into my eyes. Looking into the eyes of the prophet was pretty undescribable. 10/10 would recommend to a friend.

Also I should mention that Elder Quentin L. Cook, Marrie Cook, and Wendy Nelson were there. We got to meet all of them too! They had another devotional on Sunday that was broadcasted across all of Brazil. It was LEGIT.

In other news, it was a very eventful week!

Transfers were last monday, but it was super complicated because the mission is pretty big. A lot of people didn't transfer until Friday (after the President Nelson devotional). I was with Elder Ocampo (from Honduras) from Monday to Friday while we were waiting for our companions. He is super awesome and we've gotten along really well since the MTC days. We are both still in training but we made jokes about how I was technically his trainer because I have been on the mission for two weeks longer than him.

Got my new companion on Friday and it will be an interesting transfer! He's a Brazilian named Elder Amaral and he doesn't speak english. I'll be growing and learning a bunch this transfer because I pretty much do everything in this companionship. We are having some success though and I think we will baptize a lot this transfer!

Here's some random funny/interesting stories from the week:

-This guy came up to me on the road and tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. Then he saluted me. Then he walked away. He didn't say a word, but I appreciated the salute lol

-We get açai all the time here. There's this stuff called leite condensado (condensed milk) that is super on açai. I always ask them to put it on my açai but they always laughed when I asked for it and I never knew why. Well turns out I was saying "leite cansado" which directly translates to "tired milk" lol. Here I was asking for tired milk on my açai for my first 12 weeks on the mission.

-We were teaching a lesson and an autistic kid started trying to beat me up. I was minding my own business on the couch and he runs in and starts swinging at me. I grabbed his hands before he could hit me and his mom just casually strolls over and tells him to stop. Later he run at me again

This week me and some elders were talking about spiritual gifts. We agreed that we need to recognize our spiritual gifts in order to be able to use them and perfect them. Take some time and think about your personal strengths/spiritual gifts and think about how you can 1. perfect those gifts and 2. use the gifts to bless the lives of others.

See ya next week amigos

<3 Elder MacLay